HIALEAH GARDENS, Fla. — A 39-year-old man with a history of felony convictions in Polk County is now facing charges in South Florida after authorities said he snatched a Hialeah Gardens woman’s cat and announced he had ill intentions for the innocent feline.
State corrections records show the suspect, Tyrese Leon Pratt, has been convicted of at least three felonies. In July, federal prosecutors indicted a man with the same name and age in connection with an armed drug trafficking ring in Polk County.
In an arrest report, Hialeah Gardens Police Department Officer Angel Ponce de Leon wrote that he was patrolling the Family Dollar parking lot at 11201 NW 87th Court at around 3:15 p.m. Monday and saw a man later identified as Pratt “walking with what appeared to be a cat tucked inside his shirt.”
A second man followed close behind on a scooter, the officer wrote. He pointed at the officer and “loudly” said that Pratt, listed in the report as homeless, had “just stolen a cat” from a woman who lives nearby.
Police said she would later tell them that Pratt had come up to her as she smoked a cigarette in her yard and told her that “he was taking the cat and planned to throw it in the lake,” then snatched the cat and stuffed it under his shirt before running off.
Ponce de Leon wrote that he tried to detain Pratt, who tried to walk away and then “actively resisted by pulling his arm away and refusing to release the cat.”
Police said the woman then showed up and yelled, “That’s my cat!” and “He is biting my cat!” as the officer saw Pratt “holding the cat aggressively near his mouth.”
“I safely removed the cat from the suspect’s grasp and returned it to the victim,” Ponce de Leon wrote, saying he was able to handcuff Pratt.
Police arrested Pratt on charges of felony petit theft, animal cruelty and resisting without violence.
Miami-Dade jail records show he was being held in the hospital and had a $3,000 bond.
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